Dave Roberts (Liberia) Hiking Through Retirement

The NYTIMES headline in the Business Section of Saturday, January 16, 2016, got my attention.

“Goodbye, Golf Clubs. Hello, Hiking Boots and Kayak.”

Dave Roberts

What? That would upset a hacker like me. And the first two paragraph read:

They call him “Elusive,” at least on the hiking trails. And that’s pretty much
where Dave Roberts spends his time these days, crisscrossing the country by
foot, bike, even by kayak.”

Mr. Roberts, a retired teacher and software engineer, is on a mission to navigate
the United States powered only by his two legs and two arms. Hotels and lodges
are out of the question; he camps out aat night and lugs 25 pounds of equipment
–including his tent, sleeping bag and food–on his back.

The article is focused on what people are doing in retirement, and Roberts is the first one profiled. He had first been a PCV in Liberia in the 1970, it says, and then got married, raised a daughter and divorced in the 1980s. In 2002 quit his job and rejoined the Peace Corps. (Not sure where he was assigned) but when he finished his tour, he bought a boat and sailed across the North Atlantic.

Lately he has been traveling by kayak and bike. In November he was joined by another Liberia PCV, Greg Ferris, and they cycled from Annapolis, Maryland to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, riding about 40 miles a day. “It was brutal, Ferris told the NYTIMES reporter Abby Ellin. But Ferris did get Roberts to sleep in a hotel a few nights on the way south.

You can read the whole account here.